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A VOICE FROM THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA, 

ON 
THE TIMES, THEIR PERILS AND PROSPECTS. 



[The following passes are the editorial leaders of the Martinshnrg (Va.') Gazette, in 
four successive weekly issues, since the 10th of December, 1850. It has been thought 
that some good result may possibly follow their re •publication in a pamphlet Jorni.'] 



NUMBER I. 

More than twenty-two years ago, the fol- 
lowing extract from a Charleston paper, with 
the editorial comments, were printed under 
the editorial head of this paper. A newspa- 
per is like an individual, it has the advantage 
of experience, and may refer to its early 
views and opinions to prove that it has been, 
if not distinguished, at least consistent. Let 
our old patrons read the following from the 
Martinsburg Gazette of July 17, 1828 : 
^■From the Cliarlcston City Gazelle, July 4lh. 
"THE FOURTH OF JULY. 

"As 'The Jackson Disunion Party' intend to cel- 
ebrate the 4th of July, by an open declaration of 
eternal separation fi'om the Unioii — as the Aristo- 
crats, aided by British emissaries, are warm with 
the hopes of once more retui-ning to 'the flesh pots 
of Egypt,' and vindicating the principles of the 
Tories and Refugees of the Revolution, by atoning 
for their ingratitude to the mother country— the 
minority, composed of the sturdy old Democrats, 
native and adopted, will have to pled^je deep to the 
following toasts : 



'TAe American Republic— Too dear to the hearts 
of her native and adopted children to dread the 
paracidal arms of Aristocrats and Britisli spies. 

'•The Government of the United States— The Gov- 
ernment of The People— As well may Satan hope 
to obscure the sun, whose brightness he hates, as 
British intrigue expect to tear down the temple 
which our fathers consecrated to national free- 
dom. SPIRIT OF '7C.'' 

There is something singular in the above par.n- 
graph— unexplained, it might be esteemed as be- 
longing to the period of the Revolution ; overlook- 
ing" the date and the context, the hasty reader 
might really fancy that it was an extract from 
some South Carolina paper printed between 1780 
and 17S7 ; it would suit that period right_ well. 
There is, we opine, a good deal of meaning in the 
above paragraph — it goes far to explain the cause 
and the character of this excitement in South Car- 
olina, which to the distant beholder looks danger- 
ous and looms large, like the lurid glare of fire in 
a dark night, which burns nut in a moment, and 
proves to be a brush heap. It imports that there 
arc three parties in the State. It also points out 
by whom (and by knowing them, we may conjec- 
ture, for what) this state of disaffection is encoxir- 
aged, and the daring unlicensed language held to 



warJs that s.icred liberty, ■which was piirchnsoJ 
by the blood of patriots. unJ that holy ami inval- 
uable uuion of the States which is preserved by its 
cement. 

First, there are the leaders of the Jackson party. 
Kho vri.sh to identify 'the odious measure of the 
Tariff'"' with the present Administration — keep up 
a steady heat in the people of the State that tliey 
may be welded and moulded into an unbroken 
'Jackson"' mass. These very men would .sooner 
loose their right hands, than have that very disu- 
nion brought about which they prate about so 
magniticently. 

We then have in the above extract another class 
iillu'ied to. rather than defined, whose party colors 
:ire of a deeper au'l a darker dye — who .«eem to date 
their origin back to those days when South Caroli- 
na obeyed the loyal Gi-neruls ("lintox and CoK.v- 
WAi.Lis, when her patriots fled the land, and saw 
their patrimonies wasted, their names proscribed, 
amJ their places assumed by those recreant Tory, 
traitorous countrymen that gave their adhesion to 
th>' British Crown, and licked like dogs the'hands 
of their British masters. And can it be. that there 
is still a party of this sort in the State? ('an it be 
1 hat tifty years has not buried in oblivion this hate- 
ful band, their relics and tiieir p>rinciples? If 
not, sati-sticd we are that the third class, the "stur- 
dy old Democracy"' of the country, when once awa- 
kened to the fact of the existence of the machina- 
tions of such a party, will crush withaGianCs 
grasp, tliis puny monster of treason and discord. 

We trust in God, that there is no such party ac- 
tually organized in that State of bold and talented 
freemen. But if there be, we know enough of the 
people of that State to know, that long before they 
would suffer the ark of our safety to be touched, 
they would pour out their best blood, as their fath- 
ers did before them, in its defence. 

Some folks are disposed to feel alarmed at those 
manifestations of disaffection. If it were n»t for 
the respect v.hieh we have for so many good and 
true men in that State, we sLciild rather be dispo- 
sed to laugh. Is this the first time that we have 
lieard the cry of wolf? Does any man believe that 
those terrible, lamentable eviis which call forth so 
much pathos and prophetic eloquence, are really 
felt in this free, happy, smiling land — where Corn 
and Wine and Oil abound — where not only all the 
necessaries, but most of the luxuries of life and the 
jneans of opulence, are produced in lavish abun- 
dance withiu her wide borders? Where taxation 
oppresses not even the poorest man, and the ma- 
ehinery of government is hardly seen, or the jar of 
it felt, it runs so lightly — where the will of the ma- 
jority is cherished and regarded as the main-spring 
and prime moving power of it? In fine, does any 
man suppose that one State, even if unanimous, 
can sway twenty-three others to her partial views, 
and imbue them with her folly, and persuade them 
to beg back of George the 4th the yoke that they 
hurled into his father's face? Really, it is hardly 
worth while seriously to argue with tliese prophets 
of evil, who are as sensitive on this stibject as if 
thoy esteemed our 'well established' Government 
a rope of sand. 

I.s there not something striking in this old 
commentary ? AVhat are the natural reflec- 
tions arising from its perusal 'I That account 



for it Iiovr you may, tiiere las always been a 
want of kindly American feelln g among the 
leading men of that singular .'State. There 
has been so much i^tate- JHght feeling, as ti> 
make the State wrong in her position. \M}at 
is this owing to? Why should South Caro- 
lina at this time, with sullen, unyielding and 
urifraternid spirit, be seeking to sever the ho- 
ly band that binds the States together? Wer^' 
the old Federal party right in tlieir views that 
this band was too weak"/ — that the centrifu- 
gal would some day overcome the centripetal 
force of the political system ? Is it not cu- 
rious that South Carolina should now, now be 
mourning over the ConsoUdatory tendency of 
our Federal institutions, when she is in her 
own case exhibiting the very reverse — the 
dangers to be dreaded from State jealousy 
and discontent — and when at the North mis- 
chievous fanatics are advocating secession and 
acting so as to produce it, for the very oppo- 
site reason — on the same question — both 
complaining of, and assailing the General Go- 
vernment — the one Pro- Slavery, the other 
-.-irt/i- Slavery : South Carolina because Con- 
gress will not legislate/.^/' Slavery — !Massa- 
chusetts, because Congress will not legislate 
against the interest! Can both- be right".' 
Can either be right ? Neither — the state- 
ment of the case shews it. Both are wrong 
— both are out of their duty — both are run- 
ning into extremes — both are jeoparding Lib- 
erty, Union, Republicanism, Prosperity, and 
Honor. Yes, uonor — the honor which springs 
from a chastened, faithful, truthful patriotism 
which looks beyond present imaginary or the- 
oretical injuries, or wrongs, to a glorious fu- 
ture, made certain by an adherence to the 
fraternal bond — made sure by an honest ad- 
herence to the political Federal Compact ; 
even if the apparent working of the Confede- 
racv sometimes seejns to work injustice. ^\ e 
say sec77is, for who is it that cannot see that 
Congress are not to blame — the Constitution 
is not to blame — the bargain is a fair one, and 
how has the Federal aovernment broken it? 
But say the gloomy spirits of the South, 
who march to the funereal notes of that dis- 
tinguished but discontented man. Mr. Cal- 
iiou.v, the Northern people break the Consti- 
tution in their fanatical zeal to break down 
Slavery, We have no heart to defend these 
fanatical fools, who sport with fire-brands, ar- 
rows and death — nor those who tolerate them 
— nor those who have not the courage and 
the manliness to put them down ; but we 
again say, one wrong don't justify another, 



one madness don't make right aaotbcr; — the geographically at least we bold the golden 
way to meet and oppose presumptuous and mean. Alas! this has become a g-eooropA- 
pretentious interference with your rights, is ical queotion — one of those that our father 
not to jump to reprisals. The way to meet Washington in his Farewell Address warned 
and counteract an incendiary, is noi to put a us to beware of. He knew enough of the 
torch to his dwelling too, and thus burn the country, and the people of the country, to see 
town; but to stand upon your civic privilc- with a prophet's vision, that if any thing was 
gcs and bring him to justice — to remain on to break the holy bond of political brother- 
the side of the Zfiii' and ^oo(i orJer, and ^ruif hood — if any thing could ruin the glorious 
yomething to the sense of right in the com- compact between these iStates — the last, best 
munity — to rely hopefullj', calmly, and reso- effort for rational liberty und human happi- 
lutely, upon that returning sense of justice uess; it would be this unhappy sectional jeal- 
and love of right, and hatred of injustice in ousy which has marred hitherto every labor 
the human heart, (^the hearts of men in the of the patriot and lover of bis race, by making 
aggregate, as a community, which is as the those enemies, who should be brethren and 
lieart of one man,) which will in the course co-workers: merely because they are some- 
of human events inevitably stand by and sup - limes divided by a narrow frith, or an imagi- 
port the right. Then\et South Carolina stay nary line. 

in the Confederacy and insist upon her char- And while the nations of Europe are shew 
tered rights — these can, in the end, protect ing to us that in spite of their antiquated go- 
her interests, which will go to destruction vcrnments, and institutions encumbered with 
out of it. old abuses, that they even are gradually ob- 

Shall we go into a detailed argument to literating these absurd feuds: while England 
shew that the present state of the i'^lavery has made "Tweed's silver stream" a bond 
question is the inevitable consequence of the instead of a barrier: and France now compri- 
Te:^as movement and Texas Annexation — ses Eurgundy, Langue d'oc, and Navarro 
the cherished and favored scheme of the late within her borders :'^ while Paissia has made 
distinguished statesman of South Carolina? herself an empire of many nations and races, 
Of the Mexican War, with its its predicted and with this Union has risen from an obscure 
results of conquered territory — complicating existence a century and a half ago, to be a 
this most to be dreaded subject? Cui bono? mighty, and a civilized, and invincible Nation : 
— let by-gones be by-gones, but not forgot- while Prussia can hold the track of progressive 
^f/i when they come in as elements of Truth, greatness; and the whole Germanic people 

Yet again, we say, what has the General are panting for a wider and a grander I'nion : 
Government done to make South Carolina we here, who pointed them to the true path — 
bid "good bye to (_>ld Virginia ?" If she se- u-e, the pioneers of the great and true system 
cedes — as shethreatens to do — she does this, of separate State governments for all domes- 
depend on it, in the name of the PEOPLE tic and municipal purposes, with a great Fed- 
•if this Commonwealth, who will soon have the eral United Government for general and for- 
Cunstitutional i-ight to say so, we proclaim it eign relation.s — we are doing our utmost to 
—and without a new Constitution, recogni- undo our own work, like a crazy inheritor of 
•/ing them as the people with power to say so a valuable model, containing the secret of a 
--we know that the old Commonwealth never noble jirinciple, breaking it to pieces even, as 
will consent upon this issue, to tear her sym- a silly child would break a toy, in sport, 
boledstar cut of the Flag of our Union, and What madness — what a humiliating spec- 
throw into chaos again the beautiful and tacle of human weakness — what a satire upon 
blessed ^Constellation of free United States, free institutions — what a gratifying exhibition 

Let South Carolina beware. She may do to the tyrants and aristocrats of tho Old 

much mischief, but she can do no good by her World—what a desecration of the inheritance 

present desperate course. She is now "be- of the fathers of tho Piepublic— what a dis- 

tweeii the acting of a dreadful thing and the grace to the children of Georgk Washt.vgton. 

hrst motion." Oh let her pause I — because And one of the most alarming features of 

"being done, there is no pause." the case is, that the People are not awake to 

— • — the danger, and will not speak out and rebuko 

I%'I"ITIBEK II. the second-rate politicians who foster these 

— bad feelings, and exascerbate the evil. 

We are hero betwccr; the two extremes— Yes, second-rate pcliticiar.s~tho£C r.hcna 



i 

old Gov. Barbour used to call little boh-tail- Thirdly. — The qunml arises from a cause 
ed poliliciaits — not the thoruugh-bre(I---not which strikes directly at, and tends to rend 
those who have walked on a lofty platfurm, in two, that which alone makes us one people 
and have been long iu the public eye, and First, it is the North against the Sfo«^A- 
have seen and known enough ofhigh station, the South asawst tho North. There is a 
to be above the arts of the herds of clnnbers split across the primitive granite of the Con- 
be ow them, who will clutch at any thing, to federacy, and it is Mason and Dixon's Line, 
help their ascent. ^^,,^^ ^„j South are wedging it open-if 

lhcgreatmas3oftho.somenof lofty and once tVvirly opened, there w?ll he a "great 
expanded views who look over the whole conn- g^iph" yawning in the common Campus, and 
try.andlnokinto he future are not in office the self-.acriiicin. spirit of no one Curtius. 
at all, and will not be tempted intothe narrow can close the irreparable breach, 
and tortuous paths 01 political intrigue---mcn « j, -, it.,, 
who are not seeking for office or place but . ^^'(^^ndly. It cannot be denied that there 
content to think that "the post of Honor is does exist a marked diversity in many res- 
the private station." There are thousands ^^ I ^''''mm .*^>'^,.F'^P^'^ "^ ^he North and 
ofsuch, true, well-informed, disinterested pa- J'^e ^f";'i- \^^'^ diversity perhaps maybe 
triots, scattered thick over our whole land: traced back for centuries to the very diffcr- 
and then there are others who have "winter- P"''''? "^ ^''S'"; ^^'^"^ "^^^'i" ^^'^^ much affin- 
ed and summered" the cares and toils and ^^J "between the cavalier and the round head 
vanities of hi,eh station, and who, ripe with "-between the Ilugenot and the cautious 
knowledge and warmed with an elevated and Jf"'^^''^'^- Neither can there be now between 
cosmopolite love of country, scorn party and t^e proud, but generous, the impulsive, though 
sectional politic.^ and soar above demagogue- "^'■*^'«"'; <^aroluuan ^yho values his personal 
ism. Such men tower before us and battle honor above every thing, and the cautious, 
like Archangels in the van of Liberty's le- ^nd steadfast, but stubborn \ankee, who can- 
gions. Such men are Clay, Cass, Webstek "°*^ understand and will not believe, that the 
J)icKiNsox, FooTE, DoDGK of Towa, Douglass ^'^^-ol^"'^" would readily secede from theUnion 
of 111, Fillmore, Ciioate of Blass.. IIamil- "P°" *^''^ '^T^ "^ Aonor and risk lands and 
TONandPoiN-.?ETTof S. C, King of Ala., Cobb "^^S^cs, and peace and Lnion, if he believes 
c.fGa., Clayton of Del., and many others— ^^"^^ to be involved, without stopping an in- 
men of both parties, standing shoulder to '^'^"'^ ^'^ calculate the awful and inevitable 
shoulder, forgetful of all party divisions, re- e?nf quinces to the whole country^ in fact, 
gardless of nii partv supremacy; fearless of all '^ ^^^ ^""'^^ f:'"^^ °"/:^ ^'"^^^ *^« ^,«"^^' ^*^- 
party denunciations ; while they battle for their **;!"' ^^'>' '^^'^^^ T* ^''^"''' '' '''''''"° ^'''°' .^^""^ 
whole country, her Liberty and Union. ^'^T 'f '"' ^^ are even now ^L•antonhJ m- 

Can the people see this state of things and ^"^^'"S" l^l'' ;^"^^^, , ^""^ "°^'^'"S \^\ ^ fueling 

not wake xmi Alas! too much prost)eritv "^^ .^^^^« 5\»^^ '^^"^^^ ^^,y,<; Prompted the recent 

bath made us forgetful that the "price o'f action of A crmont. Ihercis something in 

Liberty is eternal virrilance " *'"^ '«*=^^ absence of any grievance from tugi- 

The reason of this apathy is that as He- *?^° l^^'"'"^' '"^^''" ^'"' ^'"/^^^'S- and her secu- 

publics will always be turbulent, the people "'^ ''^^''^'^ ^'""'f ^">' ^'''^\^}^'^^ '"^-^^cs one al- 

have witnessed so much noise and tumult in "^^''^ suspect that something of a selGsh and 

polities, leading apparently to no harmful re- cowardly feeling of security in her geographi- 

sult, that thev think this present state of cal position, utterly unworthy of her former 

confusion is onlv another storm of the politi- <^l'^'yf ter, prompted the step. Iler people 

cal atmo.^'phere. which will blow over, as oth- f "1^^"°* have been represented fairly in the 

crs have done. Legislature. I his must have been the work 

But, not so. This present juncture is far ^^ ^''''' ^^ob-tailed politicians. We desire not 
more perilous than any other that ever occur- *« irritate, and we know that States like Hi- 
red— it has elements of dancer in it, that no <iividuals, will sometimes do foolish things— 
prcviou.s one ever carried with it. ^"^^ Legislatures do not always represent the 

First.— It is a geographic a/, sectional good sense nor the purposes of the people. 

f.,i.,,.p^l Wc know that m lir°\nia. 

Secondly. — It is founded in a diversity of Yet, while Vermont is swaggering against 

character, pursuits and domestic iustitutions the South, by passing an unconstitutional law 

of the parties combatant. ---which will be so pronounced if tested in the 

/ 



Supreme Court (anfl wliicli decision wo ven- 
ture to affirm, she will sulimit to)---look to 
the Soutli. and see Pouth Carolina in a mood 
far more serious and dangerous, devisifig plans 
for resistance to the Union and the Constitu- 
tional enactments of Congress. Nay more, of 
calmly, but resolutely, resolving to quit the 
Union- --virtually declaring that it is al- 
readij dissolved; and this l)rings us to the 

Third, consideration- --That this unhappy 
difference is one which frays away 

"the golden link, the silken tio. 
Which heart to heart and mind to niinil 
111 body and in soul doth bind."' 

The Union of the.?c States is a sentiment 
---nothing less --nothing more. 

We are not kept tdguther by ancient asso- 
ciations, time-honored usages, common laws, 
customs and habits, and that intercourse 
which in time makes the family ties so plica- 
ted and complicated as to be almost unsever- 
able. Neither are we hooped together, as in 
the Eevolution, by the force of danger from 
without. Neither have we the bayonets of 
England, France or Russia, to scatter meet- 
ings of the people and prevent public action 
---aud what ligament oi parchvient can hold 
rations together, when the action on both 
sides is to rend it asunder? 

Then we argue, what is it after all, but a 
sentiment ? Still a sentiment- --hallowed, ex- 
alted, ennobling---havingits origin in feelings 
the holiest- --cemented by common blood shed 
in a noble cause---cherished by fraternal 
kindness, sanctified by common dangers, ren- 
dered illustrious by a common prosperity. 
We thought it was more enduring than brass 
and stronger than adamant. It ought to be I 
Oh, it ought to be!! 

Blay it yet be preserved? God in his 
mercy grant it. The hearts of the people 
are in his hands, and it is the public heart 
that must beat in uniso.-^ ---pulsate as the 
heart of one man in favor of brotherly kind- 
ness---forbearance, patience and charity. -- 
There is still time to save the Hepublic, per- 
haps---but if saved, it will be at the eleventh 
hour, and by the PEOPLE speaking out as 
with Supreme authority, "Peace-— be still!" 

NUMBEK III. 

The qnestion is, as we have shewn, render- 
ed more alarming, because of the fact, that 
the Compromise Pleasures so earnestly look- 
ed to quiet the agitation, have failed to do 
so. Waking ail allowance for the heaving of 



tlie waters which must follow a .storm; in the 
extremities ot the Union, there seems still to 
be a spirit of sectional bitterness, beyond the 
mere consequences of previous agitation. 

We have assumed and we think pruved, 
that both extremes are wrong. If we wish 
to discover what may and ouglit to be done to 
calm the troubled waters and put the Shipuf 
State again upon a smooth sea, we must hiok 
to the cause of the evil, and we shall then 
discover that both parties, North and South, 
are mistaken in the views, intentions, and 
opinions of the People of each section. For 
example — since writing our last editorial, 
where we ventured the opinion that the people 
of Vermont were not fairly represented by 
their Legislature who passed the recent law 
there, we hare assurance not only of that fact, 
but a disclosure of proceedings, proving, that 
it was a trick of that pestilent sept of inter- 
meddling agitators, the Abolitionists : and we 
are confidently assured that the law will be 
repealed to their disgrace and confusion at 
the next session. This party, the Abolition- 
ists, proper, we alledge, to be numerieall)', a 
small one, who have not the sympathies or 
respect of the great body of the Northern 
people. Let any man travel in the North, 
and converse with the people of the country 
— let him enquire of those who know public 
opinion on this subject, and he will be told 
that the great body of the Northern people 
are conservative and sound upon the very 
point that South Carolina chooses to consider 
them unsound upon. We have been assu- 
red by those who have a right to speak, in 
New England, New York and Pennsylvania, 
that if need were, they would march to the 
South, in a body, to suppress any domestic 
trouble which might be stirred up against 
their brethren of the South ; and the first men 
shot down, would be the unnatural traitors 
who might have aided io producing it. If 
the pro-slavery hotspurs of the South expect 
thn^ the opinions of the people of the non- 
slaveholding States are to be changed upon 
the question of the excellence of the Institu- 
tion, they expect too much ; especially when 
we see the impolitic style of argument 
hitherto used to convert them. They must 
do more. These new-light ultraists must 
first refute the arguments of the fathers of 
the IvepuVlic who wore once the oracles of the 
South on all questions of public polity — such 
men as W'ashington, Jkffkrson, Madison, 
and Judge St. George Tucker. Nay more 
— they must come down to the session of the 



Virginia Le^^'islature within tlie last twenty demand tliat tlioy shall not be purniittcd to 

years, when by a majority of her then leading advance one incii. 

umn the i:[ncstion of tho pfrpetiiity of slavn- Tliis great question is one which cannot 
'/•//. so far as could be gathered from spoken be blinked, even in the 8out!i . his one unart 
Words, was pronounced against, and it was by from all considoiations of the moral or noliti- 
a small vote that a law was then voted down cal bearing of the institution- -it is one which 
for prospective emancipation. 'J"he agitation works out its own solution, f^r there never 
and discussion of this momentous question yet was a people living under a tree goverii- 
lias been put aside in the ."^outh, only, be- ment who would persist in followiu'^ up a 
cause the men who make an Idol of Une idea losing business, 'i he common sense of sulf- 
in the North, have chosen to intermeddle in interest forbids it. 'J"he inevitable result of 
Uic disposition of a question which don't con- the right to better their condition, will in time 
ccrn them. Here is the grand mistake of change a system which is ruinous, ecoric/ni- 
Southern ultra, pro-slavery men. They seek cally ; and this is the true mode and the fair 

. jiot So much to protect themselves' — for they mode of settling this momentous questioti. 

are already protected by the xg\s of the Con- We believe it would have been settled in 

stitution, and by a law which will be carried IMaryland and Kentucky, and perhaps in Vir- 
•out — they seek more : to set up a school of ginia^ by this time, if our '-higher law" breth- 

propagandism in favor of the escellenee, ex- ren---our dearly beloved G .\kuiso:s and Pai;- 

j)ediency and economy of slavery as a system KERS---aided by their foreign allies, had at- 

oflabour, when their very senses mu.--t prove to tended to what is sometimes called the lltli 

them, that in an economical point of view, at Commandment, which is, that '-every Dia5 

least ; it has, and always must keep the States should attend to his own business."' 
where it prevails, behind those where it does 13ut the mistake, and the egregious one of 

..not. The eflects are obvious to the eye of the Southern ultra luen, is. in the expectation 
any man who will sail down the Ohio Kiver, or imagination (let us call it) that they can 
with Virginia and Kentucky on one side, and produce unanimity upon this phasis of the 
the State of Ohio on the other — who will pass great question. We live here upon the bor- 
on the Atlantic border from Pennsylvania or ders; — we have smarted severely under the 
New \ork to North or South Carolina. — unkind, unfraternal course of the Free States 
AVbere are the cities, towns, cultivation, man- iu regard to our fugitive slaves; — we have 
ufactures and population in the South to been born and trained up among slaves and 
compare with the North? Why has Virgin- liave inherited and own them;---but we know 
ia fallen lower and lower down the fdes at public sentiment here even, and it is more 
every decennial muster of the States ? until unequivocal still farther West in Virginia on 
ijow— she who was the first in the Confede- this subject. Let not South Carolina forget 
racy at the period of the Kevolution, is below Low many of all grades among us are non- 
those even who have been formed out of ber slaveholders ; yea, wealthy land-holders, and 
own relinquished territory: let her worn out men of all callings. This class, so loyal to 
lields---her beautiful and bountiful territory our institutions, so quiet and obedient to all 
intersected by navigable rivers, with an laws passed by a slave-holding community, 
excellent climate, lands producing abundant- have some limit to their forbearance. Thev 
ly, but without cities or manufactures, or any can't stand every thing, and one thing we 
diversity of occupation for her people ; answer confidently aver they will not stand, and that 
the question. }Ier best wealth, which is her is, they will never consent to bring up the 
population, has been drained, (the slave-hol- rear, nor stand in the van, of any Southern 
ding part of it.) 1o build up the South-West Confederacy. In a word, South Carolina will 
---her non-slavehelding portion to the North- find that she counts one too many on ber 
"West, to escape a system of labor which is roster, if she expects \'irgiuia to answer v.- 
unfavorable to the artizan, the poor young her roll call. J'erbum sat. 

man who wishes to rise in this rising country, ., 

and who seeks a land where the great labor- JVU^TIKKK IV. 

ing class are freemen, where the great sub- — 

Etr turn of society consist of those to whom The lamentable and alarming growth of 

wealth and distinction is open ; who may rise the spirit of Disunion, is to be seen in the 

there, but not here ; instead of a class of avowal and open advecaf^y of it, North and 

another color, whose very position and status South. 



Daring and unljlusliitig Ojiinion?. wliicli in Will this groat country, bound together by 

the better days of tlie Jiepublic would have common ties— social, politicul, and gcograph- 

staiuped the uian with the brand of a traitor, ical — go with you '^ or constiit to tl:e patri- 

are now blurted out in our public places — cidal blow'.' drained by one great river and 

acted upon by Legislative bodies— and yet its tributaries, having one great outlet on the 

the thunder of the People's condemnation, gulf — including ^Veste^n \irginia, i'eimsyl- 

still sleeps. vaida and other Atlantic t^tate3. \\ ill the 

It is idle to say that these things moan ^'ortheru part give up the navigation of the 

nothing; it is worse than idle to say, that ^lississijipi ; or the .^uuthern part their con- 

they tend to no evil. It is an insult to our nexiona with t^tatesou the Ohio, the Tennes- 

uuderstandiiiirs to say that, there is such ty- see, the Cumberland and the Missouri '! — 

ranny, op])rcssion. or'practieal injustice exeV- Never 1 That country is furmed by nature 

eised"^ by the General (Jovernmeiit. as to call and nature's God, to be oNic— and to the 

for revolution. The real mischief is to be eyes of any dispassionate man the wiiolk 

found in the factious spirit of sectional pride ; country of the United tStates, unlike any other 

in the one-sided view of this great question. Continent, is formed to be one and indivisa- 

which, almost wilfully, charges the compara- ble, geographically. God hath joiiicd us to- 

tively retarded prosperity of the ^outh, to gether — let no sacralegious man put us as- 

the partiality of Congress ; when it is owing sunder. 

to the inherent characteristics of our peculiar But we have no space to enlarge upon this 

system— that is to say slavery itself. last view so fruitful and instructive. 

" It is this, that occasions a'nd keeps us in Let us come to the matter in hand — to the 

the plantation state. We cannot have cities, results of our reflections — upon the true^ 

and crowing towns, and manufactures, and course for the People, the depositories of 

success in tlie various mechanical and scien- power, and of our destinies, to pursue in the 

tific arts, when we lack that great substratum present crisis. 

of society — laborers, artizans, mechanics and It is certain, that we cannot rely upon our 

tradesmen ; who can make themselves skill- politicians. These are they who brought oi: 

ful in their callings by education, training, this state of feeling by mixing up this slave 

and successful enterprize. question with miserable partizan politics 

Why is not Lowell in the cotton region ? — President making and party ascendancy. 

Why 13 Norfolk, with its noble harbor and This is true of both parties— even now, now, 

excellent advantages, a small borough, while when our blessed Union is almost dissolved, 

New York is the Emporium of Commerce? do we see this awful question mixed in with 

Why are Alexandria and Richmond far in the earthy elements of individual ambition ; — 

the rear of Philadelphia '! Let it be so — it then, 

is the result of a cause beyond our control ; 1. Let the real strength and calm wisdom, 

but why wilfully mistake "the cause — above and conservative power of the country — the 

all why not remedy the evil if we can, or if People — forget party divisions until the Re- 

we cannot; use and enjoy thankfully and in a public is out of danger. Democrats and 

brotherly spirit the blessings of that UNION Whigs ! stand shoulder to shoulder under the 

which can alone give us the benefits of our bright stars of your country. Our little party 

slave labor and productions, and ensure to us, strifes are dwarfed into nothingness when we 

our high relative prosperity. No, the spirit are called upon to save the citadel of ourlib- 

of discontent and envy, and sectional bitter- erties. 

nes5, and u'ouTicZcipricZe, prefers to find cause 2. Let us distrust all Conventions. The 

of civil war, in prospective agressions — to old Convention that formed the Constitu- 

risk a glorious future in divisions, and frag- tion with Geokge Washington at its head, 

mentary governments, and more than doubt- was good enough for us. If these proposed 

ful success : — "to call evil good, and good Conventions consist only of Union men, they 

evil — to put darkness for light, and light for can only pass flourishing resolutions, and 

^ darkness." A Southern Confederacy ! — make flourishing speeches ; — and if it is 
Where is the mighty West?— the basin of thought that this will be regarded as an over - 
the Empire, extending from the range of whelming expression of popular sentiment, 
mountains within our sight, to the slopes of there is a better way. and that is to do it in 

the Rocky mountains, and from the head Committee of the whole people. If we are 

waters of the Assineboin to the Balize ? to have Abolitionists, Free-Soilers, and ultra 



Sl.ivcry men, in tlipse Conventions, discoid 
rendered more discordant, and contusion worse 
confounded, will be the result. If it is in- 
tc'nded(and wlictlier so intended, ornot; such 
may be tlie effect) to give them tbe powers 
of a constituent asscrabl}' to alter the Con- 
stitiition, we raise our protest against it — 
"we stand by the work of our fathers, we 
stand bv tlie I niun" as it is. 

o. The I'nion-nicn of the North have their 
mission and duty. In iiuint of fact, it is at 
the North chiefly that the work is to be done. 
The Constitution, dear to us all, was founded 
in a spirit of Compromise. If it is not abso- 
lutely perfect, in theory, in the eyes of some, 
Morth and k>outh ; we all profess to believe 
that it is the best that could have been made 
under the circumstances of its creation and 
ad(jption, and that we arc willing to stand by 
it. By it our slaves are to be delivered vp 
when they ahscond from our sej-ricc. This 
is a substantive and positive duty and obliga- 
tion assumed and binding on the Free States, 
and this is, and was, an essential stipulation 
in the Conipact. The Northern people do 
not understand the relation of master and 
servant, as it exists here between us. They 
have no idea, and do not believe, how we 
have to work for our negroes, and how little 
they work for t^*?— how good servants love 
and honor their masters, and have good rea- 
son to do so ; and how this unjust, insulting 
preference for the runaway (generally a thief, 
and always a bad negro) serves to rivet the 
bondage of those who are left :-and how often 
by the mere wantonness of fanaticism and an 
intermeddling spirit, the widow and the or- 
jihan, and struggling farmer with narrow 
means, are cri]ipled by the loss of valuable 
servants, who have cost more to raise them 
than their labor is worth. Well, let the 
North understand and believe, if they wish 
to save the Union, that they must enforce 
this Constitutional guarantee. We stand 
upon our Constitutional rights in this. Let 
the fugitive law be what it may — wise or not, 
in its details — your fathers took the Union 
and you have thriven under it, on this condi- 
tion — and rely upon it, you will have blood- 
shed in your borders, ending in an irremediable 
breach between us, if you continue to prefer 
the runaway slave to your political brethren 
of the same color and origin with yourselves. 
People of the North ! look to this ! and com- 
pel your politicians and Legialatures to look 
this great question in the face, and no longer 
trifle mth fire-brands, over an open mine of 



coiiibu.^lihles. .Wc speak this in all sober 
sadness — deeply convinced from careful re- 
flection that the whole h'lavo-holding commu- 
nity will prefer any thing, disunion and civil 
war, the chance of domestic troubles, and in- 
ternecine strife, to the continuance of this 
wanton disregard of our sacred rights under 
the law paramount of the land. Then peo- 
ple of the iS^orth — loving the Union — shew 
in your meetings, your instructions to your 
Legislatures, your election of Union men, 
your ready obedience to the law, that your 
love of country is not ''bounded on the South'" 
by Mason & Pixon's line. 

4. What shall we say to the People of the 
South — the great multitude of freemen wlio 
have borne so long and so patiently these 
wanton assaults upon their domestic peace, 
and who yet lift up their eyes to the starry 
symbol of the Union, and who yet hope and 
trust that we may still live together in peace .' 

^Ve say — assert your rights — demand and 
strive for your Constitutional privileges — 
claim and reclaim your lawful property under 
and within the pale of the Constitution : — it 
is strong enough to hold us — it is potent 
enough to secure them. 

Let us resolve too to cling to that which is 
the ark of our safety, and rebuke by our fidel- 
ity to every plank and spar in it, the mad ca- 
reer of some of our Southern brethren. Let 
each section do its appropriate work, at home. 
The voice of the mighty host, of Union- loving 
Southern men, if once heard by those who 
dare to jeopard your lives and fortunes and 
sacred libertios, and leave to your children an 
inheritance of civil war ; would hush them into 
a shamed silence, now and forever. Then, 

5thly and lastly— Let all the PKOPLK 
speak out- --let them do this privately, pub- 
licly, through the press, by their letters, in 
spoken and written and printed words, but 
above all in their primary County and Dis- 
trict meetings, all over the country from 
Maine to the Capes of Florida, from the 
shores of the Atlantic to the strand of the 
Californias. 

The movement should be universal — for 
tbe evil threatens all. The uprising should bo 
irmnediate— -for the danger is imminent. — 
This is our counsel and best opinion. We 
go back to the source of political power, that 
the stream may be purified. We invoke the 
masters to command and restrain their own 
servants. We call upon the citizens of the 
country, with an humble reliance upon God's 
help, to save their own liberties. 















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